Twitter Trending Topic Spam

Today I am left wondering… How effective are Twitter trending topics? Trending topics used to be a place to look for the latest news, events, or information on a specific topic. Lately, it seems to be more of a place where spammers hang out and hijack the trending topics. Now, when viewing any given trending topic you are presented with irrelevant information and spam from people who are attempting to get their message seen by riding on the popularity of the trending topic.